Starting foreign-language teaching earlier: Improving the quality of L2 education or taking the easy way out?

Abstract

Although issues regarding the critical period hypothesis (CPH) have become recurrent in the fields of foreign language (L2) teaching and learning; the claim that there is a period extending from ages 2-12 during which children can acquire language more easily and rapidly has recently been revived as a result of social demands in various countries for improved outcomes in the area of L2 teaching in public schools. The focus of this paper is on the implicit/explicit role played by the CPH in recent educational reforms that have resulted in an international trend toward an early start in L2 teaching; particularly the teaching of English as a foreign/international language. The paper argues that the CPH has become a powerful instrument; one that allows educational policymakers to ignore the findings of empirical research and claim to offer “quality L2 teaching” by simply reducing the required starting age.